Entries tagged with altic

AlticTeaching.com is a legit program.

Gordon (a friend from high school, and the one who invited me to the facebook group, bringing to my attention the site AlticTeaching.com, and the Advanced Learning and Teaching In China (ALTIC, henceforth) program) called me earlier today about my previous post, asking me to remove my negative comments on the program. I refused, mostly because I really, really dislike removing stuff. Not too sure why, probably just a major distaste for censorship. More information is good. At least, when people are smart and know how to draw their own conclusions about things. Yes, there is a thing called information overload, but no, they're not anywhere close to this point.

But yes, I digress. Gordon called. We talked, then he put me in touch with John Holsapple. I spoke to John over the phone. He repeated the request to remove stuff, specifying the exact parts. ::sighs:: I agreed, since it does make sense that people not bother reading the entire post, and skimming it may cause some people to come to the wrong conclusion, despite the red edits notes.

But yes, props to ALTIC for caring. And getting in touch with me. They are real, web of trust* has been properly established beyond reasonable doubt.

Oh, yes, and John will be sending me more information later, when he isn't as busy with getting the company incorporated. So for a while, you may catch more information on them at this blog. Maybe sometime during this week.

*security thing. Where you 'sign' other people certificates indicating that you know them, and they are who they are. And so as people sign each other's certificates, you establish a web of trust (so person A trust person B, B trusts C, so then A and C know that A is really A and C is C when A and C talk to each other. If that made any sense whatsoever.)

I was invited to a "Get Paid to go to China" group by Gordon. Here's the group description as of 5/27/2007, 2:13 AM EST:( The sales pitch )

And the group's recent news:

If you successfully recruit a person for our program, we will pay you $300. If you are doing our program, we will deduct $500 from your deposit. Please contact us before you start recruiting at John@AlticTeaching.com.

Now, I do know Gordon IRL (as most people here know) and he actually posted a bit in the group discussion regarding going to china. Here's what he said:

"There are many ways to go to China, but most involve worthless tours with Westerners and expensive study/intern abroad programs (especially with GW Tuition)! ALTIC is a one-of-a-kind deal that integrates you into urban Chinese society without all those expensive fees. If you think now your future involves China, you can do yourself no greater favor than taking advantage of this opportunity and sampling real Chinese society and culture. Find out first if it's right for you, without breaking the bank.

The author resided in Beijing for one semester as a CIEE student, another as a Peking University student, and a summer as a researcher. He is not affilated with ALTIC."

[EDIT 5/27/07, 23:14]Ok, I'm retracting my statement of mistrust. Gordon called me earlier and has informed me that he knows John Holsapple personally, and that the program is quite legit. It is completely new, hence the lack of any other references to the program.